Felipe Drugovich is already the third Friday driver for Mexico: the teams will soon run out of options – this is the situation
The rookie field in the first free practice in Mexico continues to grow. It is already known that at least three regular drivers will skip the first training session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to make way for a junior driver – as the regulations require twice a year.
The use of Oliver Bearman, whose Haas team has long since fulfilled the duty, and Pato O’Ward at McLaren has long been established, and now Aston Martin has also announced a driver change: test driver Felipe Drugovich will take a seat in the AMR24 and replace Fernando Alonso during the session.
For the Brazilian, it will be his first outing in a real car, having already tested it extensively in the simulator: “I have spent a good part of the year developing this car in the team’s simulator, so it will be very valuable for me to feel the connection between the simulation and reality,” says the former Formula 2 champion.
“The Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a track that I have never driven before. It is a challenging circuit with a mixture of long straights and technical corners. That’s why I’ll be spending a lot of time in the simulator in the run-up to the event so that I’m ready in FT1,” says Drugovich.
Krack: ‘Rewarding experience’
“Felipe is regularly in our simulator at Silverstone and provides detailed and attentive feedback to help develop the car,” says Team Principal Mike Krack. ‘So it will be a worthwhile experience for him to take to the track in Mexico.’
Taking to the wheel in Mexico.
Hear from @FelipeDrugovich ahead of his upcoming debut in the AMR24 during FP1 at the MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/M3pd4G8pVM
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) October 9, 2024
“During the session, Felipe will work through the team’s race plan and gather important data that will help us make decisions for the rest of the weekend and fine-tune the car.”
Drugovich has previously held the role of Friday driver in 2022 and 2023, but has never driven in Mexico: in 2022 and 2023, he was allowed to drive in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, and last year he also got the training in Monza.
Mexico or Abu Dhabi?
But Aston Martin is only fulfilling the first part of its commitment with this, because the Mexico appearance is the first of a Friday driver this season. The team plans a second appearance “later in the season”, although as usual it will probably be in Abu Dhabi.
Of the remaining six races, three sprints with only one practice session each are still on the program, with Austin, Brazil and Qatar, and it is unlikely that a team will put a rookie at the wheel on the Las Vegas street circuit.
So whoever still has two races left will put them on Mexico and Abu Dhabi. In addition to McLaren and Aston Martin, this currently only affects Ferrari, who have not yet had a Friday driver. Although Oliver Bearman had to drive for Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia from the third training session, Article 32.4 of the sporting regulations, which regulates Friday drivers, explicitly only refers to FT1 and FT2.
Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams, Racing Bulls and Sauber still have to allocate a training session – which will probably be in either Mexico or Abu Dhabi.
